In the past, various heated ice cream scoop devices have been described. A need for such a device for serving a cold confectionary product such as ice cream arises from the difficulty that retailers have in serving numerous scoops to their clients. Often an ice cream scoop is dipped in water after each serving of ice cream to clean off the scoop and to partially warm the scoop to make it easier to provide another scoop of ice cream. However, each time the ice cream scoop is dipped in water, some of the water transfers with the ice cream scoop making the resulting product less palatable because of the ice formed on the scoop of ice cream.
Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,059 utilizes electrical resistance elements mounted within a scoop structure. Leddy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,604 provides a further example of an electrically heated ice cream dispenser organization. Lamphere and Spector U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,921 provide yet another electrically heated ice cream scoop comprising a scoop portion, a handle portion, means (electrical through an element and a power cord) for heating the scoop portion, means for controlling the temperature in the scoop portion and a stand built into the handle portion to support the scoop portion when not being used.
Budreau, U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,832 disclosed an ice cream scoop including a ladle formed within an interior wall and exterior wall defining a heat chamber therebetween, and with the heating chamber including a vent through the exterior wall diametrically opposed to an elongated handle, with the handle including a heating assembly for mounting a heating cartridge (such-as a cigarette lighter), thereby directing heated air supply between the interior and exterior walls of the scoop.
Virkler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,837,296 disclosed a water heated ice cream scoop wherein the ice cream scoop comprises a hollow chamber throughout the ice cream scoop, which is filled with heated water and emptied on a regular basis through a cap on a portion of the ice cream scoop.
Vidmar et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,417 disclosed a microwave heated serving utensil for serving a frozen confection including a bowl portion formed from a substantially rigid material that becomes heated when subjected to microwave radiation and further including a handle portion attached to the bowl portion, formed from a substantially rigid material that substantially restricts the absorption of microwave energy.
Each of the previously described ice cream scoops have limitations, and most important, are limited to a single use. A need still exists for an improved heated food serving apparatus for frozen confections. The inventor of this application provides such an improved heated food serving apparatus having detachable heads allowing for multiple uses of the heated food serving apparatus. Specifically, the head may be a scoop, a fork, a ladle and a knife, which permits a user of the heated food serving apparatus to both scoop a frozen confection and serve the frozen confection when it is made up into various forms, such as a cake or a roll. Accordingly, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this inventor's heated food serving apparatus is an improvement over the previously described heated ice cream scoops and also provides for multiple uses.